ccording to its leaders,
DePirro/Garrone is an
independent ad agency
founded on the principles of strong strategic
insight and the power of creativity.

The agency has consistently had a
strong presence in pharmaceutical,
medical device, and wellness brands
since it was founded eight years ago.

The agency started o; 2015 expanding its general consumer roster with
a win in the nutritional supplement
space, developing an integrated national campaign for Qunol heart
health CoQ10 supplements including
branding, broadcast, and digital. The
agency also continued to build on its
strong presence in the medical device
category, adding new assignments
from Asante’s Snap Insulin Pump
and continuing work on Phonak’s
Lyric Hearing. DePirro/Garrone
also added a new social/digital assignment from longtime client Pfizer.

This winning trend continued with
industry award recognition, as the
agency received multiple awards for
its work on medical devices including four Davey Awards, an Ad Age
Healthcare Impact award, a Summit
Emerging Media Innovator award,
a Summit Emerging Media Leader
award, and a platinum Summit Marketing Effectiveness award.

Reinforcing the agency’s commit-ment to diversity in all disciplines(and a 100 percent diverse companysince its inception), in 2015 DePirro/Garrone also received national certi-fication as a women-owned businessfrom WBENC (Women’s BusinessEnterprise National Council), an orga-nization recognized across the countryfor its rigorous certification standards.

When launching their creative agency early in 2008, partners DePirro
and Garrone say they realized from
their backgrounds at general consumer boutiques and large network
shops that they could create a new,
non-traditional model that could deliver high-quality work without excess
layers and excess overhead. With a 20
percent physical and 80 percent virtual footprint, the agency offers all the
full-service capabilities of a traditional
network shop but with progressive efficiency, executives say.

Key to the success of this model
has been maintaining a steady inner
core of experienced professionals in
key roles across the main disciplines,
including research, strategy, creative
and multichannel production. Almost
eight years of success provide evidence
of the effectiveness of the model, as do
the other agencies that have adopted
the model since.

According to executives, a key to the
success of this flexible model is the agency’s philosophy that “creative matters.”

“Coming from creative backgrounds, the agency’s founders reinforce and reward innovative thinking in all disciplines, from research
through concepts to production,”
management explains. “Another important aspect of combining innate
creativity with a flexible model is that
the agency is structured to embrace
change as a constant, and believes today’s environment of constant change
is one to be leveraged, not resisted.”

Another key to DePirro/Garrone’s
efficiency from inception was building
its production department as 100 percent integrated, with digital, broadcast
and print under one supervisory role.
Recognizing early on the importance
of video as a cross-platform communication tool, the agency also built an
in-house edit studio to produce videos
for all digital formats.

With the founders responsible for
creating some of the most recognized
campaigns in DTC history (
including Zelnorm, Lamisil, Zoloft, and
Zyrtec), the agency plans to continue
its mission of finding truly creative,
iconic and effective solutions for DTC
campaigns in order to contribute to
the overall quality of work and avoid
the recycling of old ideas in this challenging space, executives say.

As part of its unique approach to
healthcare brands as general consumer brands, the agency also continues to
participate in creative incubators, labs,
and think tanks outside the pharma
space in order to keep fostering innovative ideas for the category.

According to its leaders,
DePirro/Garrone spent more than 20 percent of its
resources on pro-bono work in 2015
and has supported diverse groups
such as FreeArts NYC, Respite Care
Services Inc (a non-profit dedicated to
helping the developmentally disabled
community) and BBBS (Big Brothers
Big Sisters).

As far as environmental initiatives,
the agency’s 20/80 footprint model
has long created less environmental
impact overall. The agency also supports a greener world as a contributing member of Transportation Alternatives, an organization dedicated to
“better bicycling, walking and public
transit, and fewer cars.” The agency offers free bikeshare membership
to all employees that commute to its
physical office. medadnews